


Outlander 3x08: If Claire had told Jenny the truth

by abreathofsnowandashes



Series: Not Quite Fics [2]
Category: Outlander (TV)
Genre: First Wife, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 06:56:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13161645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abreathofsnowandashes/pseuds/abreathofsnowandashes
Summary: Exactly as the title says. An extension of the Claire/Jenny scene on the steps of Lallybroch, towards the end of 3x08.





	Outlander 3x08: If Claire had told Jenny the truth

**Author's Note:**

> I found myself frustrated by the choice to not tell Jenny the truth in ep 3x08, especially when she seemed to have a fair idea that there was something otherworldly about Claire. I’ve watched the scene a few times now and actually reading the dialogue really makes it clear that Jenny already suspects Claire of being “not of this world”. Her hurt comes from being lied to and not being trusted. She valued her relationship with Claire and I think feels betrayed on her own behalf, just as much as Jamie’s. 
> 
> I didn’t have the time or energy to write a full fic so this impromptu dialogue exchange had to do. I’m still team JennyCouldHaveHandledIt1k766.

**Jenny** : I didna ken who ye were or _what._ We didna know yer people or yer place. Even when Jamie told me ye might tell me things that might no make any sense, I didna question it. Ye said to plant potatoes and I did as told. The crop kept us alive for for more than one winter after Culloden. You saved us and I never asked about any of it, did I? Jamie chose ye, that was enough.

**Claire** : But it isn't enough now is it?

**Jenny** : I suppose you'll never tell me the full story?

**Claire** : Would it make a difference if I did? Would you be able to forgive me if you knew everything?

**Jenny:** It would be a damn sight better than what I'm thinking now!

**Claire:**  What are you thinking?

**Jenny:** That ye've been lying to me since the day I met ye. That ye never gave a fig about any of us here. That ye abandoned my brother when he needed ye the most. That ye've waltzed back in only when he's finally put himself rights again. _That_ is what it looks like from where I’m sitting, Claire.

_Claire flinched at the hurt in Jenny’s words and swallowed before she responded._

**Claire:**  If I tell you, I can't take it back and you won't be able to unhear it. Are you sure you want that?

**Jenny:** I canna think any less of ye than I already do!

_Claire almost laughed at that. Trust Jenny not to sugar coat it._

**Claire:**  Young Ian, when I met him in Edinburgh, told me that people here, at Lallybroch, used to say that I was fairy or a wise woman?

**Jenny:** Mmmphmm

**Claire:** I don't know anything about fairies or wise women or any of that. But... are you familiar with the standing stones at Craigh na Dun? The fairy hill?

_Jenny glanced warily at Claire from the corner of her eye._

**Jenny:** Aye, I've heard stories abou' it.

**Claire:**  I don’t know how it works or what it means but when I touch the great hedge stone in that circle, I can travel through time.

_Jenny blinked like an owl, just like Jamie, and then nodded for Claire to carry on_.

**Claire:** I don't know why I can do that and others can't, the first time it happened it was an accident. I was picking flowers at the base of the Stone... in 1945.

_As though a long fostered theory had been confirmed, Jenny pitched forward and turned fully to look at Claire._

**Jenny:** Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You're from the future then? That's how ye knew of the war and what was to follow?

**Claire:** Yes.

**Jenny:** Does Jamie know?

_Claire nodded._

**Claire:**  I told him not long after we married. It was just before we came here for the first time.

**Jenny:** Why didna ye tell me then?

**Claire:**  Before we came to Lallybroch I had been tried as a witch in Cranesmuir. I was still in shock and we were afraid to say anything after that, for fear of what could happen. It was Laoghaire who orchestrated it. She wanted Jamie for herself.

_Jenny reeled back, stricken._

**Jenny:** Jesus God, Claire! I didna know!

**Claire:** I know. Jamie knew though, but that is something that we will have to settle between ourselves.

**Jenny:** Fairy or no, that still doesna explain why ye left my brother.

**Claire:** I didn't leave him. At least, not willingly. We had been trying to stop the Rising, to save the Highlands. Obviously, we didn’t succeed. On the morning of Culloden I told Jamie that I would die on the battlefield with him. And I meant it. I would have walked through hell itself for him. I didn't want to leave him and I wouldn’t have, only... I was with child.

_Jenny gasped._

**Claire:**  Jamie expected to die in the battle and without him I would have been in danger. The Stuart White Witch. People let me be because I was Jamie’s wife, but without him... Sooner or later superstition or the Redcoats who'd have got to me. So, he made me go back, through the Stones. To my first husband. So the child and I would both be safe.

**Jenny:** First husband!? Was he no dead?

**Claire:** I was married when I went through the first time. We obviously couldn’t say that once I decided to stay so we said I was a widow. Frank was a good man and I had loved him once. But Jamie... Jamie was the love of my life.

_Jenny made a deep sound of approval at the back of her throat._

**Jenny:** So all these years he's known that ye were somewhere else in time. You and the bairn?

**Claire:** Yes. Or at least, he knew that was a possibility. Going through the Stones, it's horrifying. People don’t always make it.

**Jenny:** Jesus God, no wonder he was half mad with the grief.

**Claire:** He went... _mad?_

**Jenny:** Aye, well, that’s how it seemed to me at the time, I canna say I blame him now that I know. Ye made it though, you and the bairn?

**Claire:** Yes, she made it, too.

_Jenny's eyes grew three sizes at word of her niece and she watched Claire reach into her pocket and pull out a small package of what looked like miniatures. Claire placed them in Jenny's hands._

**Claire:** This is your niece, Brianna Ellen Fraser.

**Jenny:** _Oh_ _mo chridhe!_ She’s the double of my mam!

_Claire looked down at the pictures and smiled._

**Claire:** I always thought so, too. 

**Jenny:** Has Jamie seen these?

_Claire’s voice took on a tender, wistful note._

**Claire:** He rifles through them every time he thinks no one is looking.

**Jenny:** What is she like?

**Claire:** A Fraser. Stubborn as a mule and with the temper to go with it. She’s so like him, Jenny. Always looking to take charge and do what is right, even if it pains her. But determined too, and brave, she trusts herself. She can fix anything you put in front of her. Her mind... it’s always ticking over, always wanting to know how things work. She’s a very special young woman.

**Jenny:** Where is she now?

**Claire:** She’s in Boston. In 1968.

**Jenny:** She kens? Abou’ all of this?

**Claire:** Yes, she and a family friend helped find Jamie. I wish... I wish very much you could have known each other.

**Jenny:**  Aye, so do I lass.

_Claire suddenly felt overcome with emotion and her vision grew blurred.She clutched Jenny’s hand and squeezed tightly._

**Claire:** Jenny, I missed you terribly. Please believe that. I felt so alone. No one in the world to share my grief with or even to understand or care. We wanted to raise our family here. I always imagined our children growing up together. I didn’t just lose Jamie, I lost all of you too... if there was any other way... If I’d had found out Jamie had survived earlier...

_Jenny pulled Claire into her embrace and held her._

**Jenny:** Hush lass, I ken. I ken. Hush now. 

**Claire:** I’m sorry, I’ve blubbered all over your shoulder.

**Jenny:** Pay no mind, lass. I dinna know what ye are Claire and I’m sure I will have questions for ye in the days to come but I want to thank ye, for telling me true and I want to offer my apologies for treatin’ ye sae cruel. Ye didna deserve a bit o’ it and it shames me to think of all the that I’ve said against ye... and Jamie.

**Claire:** Would you be willing to start fresh then? A clean slate?

**Jenny:** Aye, if ye’re willin’ to gie me one, too.

**Claire:** Of course! 

**Jenny:**  It’s settled then. The past is the past and we start anew from here.

_Claire smiled at Jenny and squeezed her hand once more._

**Claire:** I better go in and check on Jamie, his fever should be broken by now.

**Jenny:** Would ye mind if I go in instead? I’ll have a piece to say to him, too.

**Claire:** Oh yes, of course.

_Jenny leaned forward and placed a kiss on Claire’s forehead and then got up and made her way inside._

_Claire sat there on the steps and replayed the conversation in her mind. There were still issues to resolve and she and Jamie had many more challenges to face but a tangled knot of uncertainty and pain that had been nestled deep in her heart had finally come lose and for just a little while, she could breathe easy once more._


End file.
